Posts Tagged ‘cats’
Special Helper
When we adopted our cats, I discovered some cardboard scratchers at the rescue organization which were distributed throughout their facility. I hadn’t seen such a thing before, and I was intrigued by them. We had just recently moved to our new home, and had a LOT of cardboard left over from boxes, so I cut some up and make a scratcher of my own.
Pequenita still seems to prefer our furniture, but Mozyr has really taken to the cardboard. He shredded this one until it didn’t work so well anymore, and then turned around and began clawing the other end.
As I was cleaning up the packaging from our new gas barbeque grill last week, it occurred to me that the heavy box would work great for restoring the cat scratcher. I brought the cardboard inside where it was warm, and started cutting it down to size. Mozyr showed up right away to offer his assistance.
It was special to have his help, and I think it makes him even more attached to using the cardboard scratcher. It appears he has acquired a sense of ownership from having participated in its construction.
Snow Day
While the northeast United States makes news for the big wallop of winter they got socked with, we in the Twin Cities area are left with a drippy mess that surprises me for being another winter rainstorm, turning to sloppy wet snow reminiscent of the April storms of my youth. Unfortunately, they are now occurring in February.
We did what you do with April snow… 
Then we snuggled into the exceptional comfort of our log home, where we had a beautiful fire in the fireplace. We turned on the broadcast of the Grammy Awards show, and let Pequenita step all over us in search of attention. Where was Mozyr? He is much more reserved than that. Sometimes, I think it is just to be different than his sister.
Cat Report
It has been a while since I gushed over our adopted kitties, Pequenita and Mozyr. I am, admittedly, slowly being pulled from my previous Scrooge-like attitude about cohabitating with feline critters. We’ll see how that holds up when I eventually step on a freshly upchucked hairball, unceremoniously deposited in the middle of the night on the path to the bathroom. Hasn’t yet happened. With Cyndie home often enough to handle the majority of feeding and cat-litter duties, my exposure to the chores I have minimal tolerance for, is fairly limited.
The experience thus far has not been entirely vomit-free, but, lucky for me, Mozyr seems to be happy to clean up after his sister, …and it doesn’t bother me to let him have the honor. Such situations are much the exception, and not the usual routine. They are behaving as if thoroughly happy with their situation here, and seem to be getting along well enough. They still have bouts of conflict that I am unskilled at interpreting as being battles for dominance, or simple playful combat. Whichever it is, I take solace in the fact that as quick as it starts, it ends, and they can be found lying side by side, in harmonious bliss. I’m pretty sure they have a game of ‘tag’ or ‘chase’ in their repertoire of playtime activities, which explains at least some of the frantic running, sliding, and banging shenanigans they get into.
We tried an experiment of banishing them from the bedroom, after it seemed like I might be experiencing some allergic symptoms, but it turned out to be related to a cold, and cleared up in a reasonable amount of time. We ended up with a pretty good compromise, in that they developed a fondness for the bed across the hall in the den, yet can come and go as they please, to check on us. Unfortunately, it is Pequenita’s habit to do her check-ins somewhere between 4 and 5 a.m., being very thorough to stomp and knead all about our heads in search of a face to which she can press her cold nose.
Yesterday, I walked into the den to connect my laptop to the printer and fired it up, making all sorts of noises that would typically startle them, without realizing they were even in there. As I was about to step out, I spotted Mozyr, sprawled in one of the little beds Cyndie recently brought home for them. It looked like he was out cold. Pequenita was so curled up, I almost missed her, entirely. I went and grabbed my camera.
After I got both images on my computer screen, side by side, we realized the cats appear to have each picked the bed that matches their color. Cyndie said she wasn’t even aware of the potential coordination. These were simply the least expensive beds, and the only colors available.
Their adorable appearance, while making the absolute best use of a cold and snowy afternoon, won them a blog post on this particular day.
Excitement Aplenty
This morning, we are lounging in bed a bit longer than usual, enjoying a day off from work, and a day off from holiday events. The excitement has been enjoyable for the most part, but there is something precious about the return to normalcy that follows.
Not all of the excitement has been the kind we wished to experience. On Christmas eve morning, as I bent forward to put on a sock, the pressure on one of my degenerating discs was too much, and I was served up a dose of prolonged discomfort. Oh joy. The kids arrived and we had a nice breakfast and exchanged presents.
Later, as we were preparing ourselves to leave for an overnight visit to Cyndie’s parent’s house, I spotted the tail end of one of our two recently adopted cats, Mozyr, moving past the glass of the door to the deck, and somehow he was on the outside of the glass! We do not mean for these cats to be outdoor cats, and we were about to leave for a day, with the temperature headed below zero (F) outside.
Julian was still here, so he was able to assist in wrangling Mozyr, but the poor cat was not showing any signs of understanding we were trying to act in his best interests. It was a bit of a keystone cops escapade, with me indoors, just out of the shower, and wrapped in a towel, Cyndie, with a flashlight to look under the deck, carrying a bowl of food for enticement, and Julian, in tennis shoes, treading in the snow around the house, moving about a half-house length behind Mozyr as the cat did nervous laps around the building.
At one point, on the deck, with Julian on one side and Cyndie on the other, I was trying to get to the door to the right of the fireplace to open it, when Mozyr leaped into the closed door on the other side. The impact startled him into a panicked sprint out and around Cyndie, and he returned to another batch of tentative laps around the house.
When, finally, all things lined up to allow a door to be opened where he was able to find it, Mozyr dashed in the house and sprinted at top speed for the safety of the furthest spot under our bed.
We are home again, and the cats appear to have survived their first night alone here. It’s too bad my ailing back doesn’t return to normal in that same amount of time. I expect my problem is a result of the departure from achieving a daily walk, and sessions of exercise. I intend to remedy that situation with a renewed priority to find a way to fit it in, regardless the usual obstructions of my current working schedule.
I’m ready for a little break in the excitement department for a few days. Hopefully, the cats will be thinking along the same lines.
Wilting Weather
One week ago, our little paradise was being buried in beautiful fresh snow. It was falling so fast, I couldn’t keep up with clearing it. I ended up spending almost the entire day last Monday, plowing and shoveling to get dug out.
Now, it is a foggy, sloppy mess, after yesterday’s rain, and a few days of above freezing temperatures. It’s a shame. It seems like such a waste. There was so much potential in all that snow! I didn’t get a chance to even think about making an igloo. I did have visions of starting a ski trail through the woods, though, but that isn’t likely to happen now.
Maybe winter will return. Or, maybe this is the new reality of the warming climate. We’ll get some snow, but not a full winter’s worth. Of course, my sour grapes perspective may be premature. We’ve not even reached the winter solstice yet! If I frame last week’s snow as just a late autumn event, maybe it doesn’t seem so gloomy.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit my childhood memories of the good ol’ days. When it snowed in November or December back then, it was the beginning of a winter’s worth.
The cats don’t seem to mind, either way. They are happy to sit at the window and watch snowflakes falling, or water dripping. It’s all good to them.
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Yesterday, Pequenita got distracted from her project of helping me pull the sheets off the bed.
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Mozyr paid no attention when his sister flicked the toy down to him on the floor.
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Cat Tales
Of course, you must expect that the newly adopted kitties are commanding the majority of our attention over the last few days. They are doing amazingly well in their new environment.
The first night was a bit like having a new baby. We were awakened about every two hours, and there were some sad-sounding cries in the night. Luckily, the cup that got knocked off the top of the dresser at about 2 a.m. was an empty plastic one, so it made a lot of noise, but didn’t break, and nothing spilled.
blurry nighttime cell phone capture of cats resting comfortably
The second night was great. They must have been tired, because they slept most of it.
Yesterday, after the cats had been here for just a day and a half, we opened up the bedroom door to let them roam. Pequenita was in her glory, but Mozyr was a bit intimidated. Unfortunately, very early in his explorations, a small end-table that had been pushed up against a window ledge, toppled out from under him. That scare sent him immediately back under the bed.
I had a project going on downstairs, and ‘nita was keeping me company and checking things out. We have a tall, empty wardrobe box left from the move, which allowed her to demonstrate her impressive jumping abilities. I think she startled herself a bit in the process, and came out of it a lot more nervous than when she went in.
In the basement, most of the ceiling is finished, but she found that climbing to the top of the storage room allows access above the ceiling tiles and into the rafters under the floor of the first level. Hopefully, while she was cleaning out all those cobwebs, she was leaving her scent behind to give notice to the mice that there are a couple of new sheriffs in town.
I got nervous about her being up there because, before we had cats, Cyndie had put out poison, and I don’t know where rodents may have stashed what they hoarded. I didn’t want Pequenita to discover a stash somewhere above the ceiling tiles. When I got her to come down again, I decided the adventure had earned her a chance to go back in the bedroom for the rest of the afternoon.
When we decided we’d be getting cats, I had to pull out all the snapping mouse traps we used to have inside. I moved them out into the garage. Yesterday morning I found my first mouse frozen in the jaws of one trap. I reset it, and by afternoon, had another one at the same location.
Maybe, if I can catch all the mice in the garage, before they even get to the house, our cats will have an easy job of it. They will be able to spend their days lounging in the sunshine that beams through the doors to the deck, while watching all the birds and squirrels put on a tempting show outside.
Relative Something 